


It's Not a Fairy Tale

by Levana



Category: Tanis (Podcast), The Black Tapes Podcast
Genre: AU from the finale, Gen, The ship may or may not sail, spoilers for the finale
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2019-01-30 21:59:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12662256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Levana/pseuds/Levana
Summary: Life isn’t a fairy tale.  Running away isn’t romantic, especially after you’ve been filmed sleeping in your apartment at night.  It doesn’t make your problems magically disappear - it creates new ones.





	It's Not a Fairy Tale

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't beta'd. I wrote it in a fit of inspiration during a work break after listening to the finale. There will be several parts. I have no idea if the Smut Fairy will visit at all.
> 
> Comments are always welcome! That's half the fun!

“What if we just leave?”  
“You’re going to make me dinner, we’re going to drink this bottle of red, and then we’re going to wake up and drive to the airport. Then, all you have to do is decide which plane we get on.”

If this were a fairy tale, we would just get on a plane to an exotic, distant locale. We would run off into the dawn, hands held, and live happily ever after. 

But life isn’t a fairy tale. Running away isn’t romantic, especially after you’ve been filmed sleeping in your apartment at night. It doesn’t make your problems magically disappear - it creates new ones. Let’s be real for a moment; neither one of us is going to throw away years of work simply because the other asked. We will, however, set into motion a plan to go into hiding that we’d prepared with the help of MK and Strand’s considerable assets, not just for our own safety, but the safety of those we care about. My parents, his daughter, the staff at the studio and the Institute, their safety was just as much at stake as ours. Even Nic, as clueless and hapless as he is, would benefit from our escape (and MK swears to distract him until he loses interest). 

Facts: 

Strand had already purchased new identities for us as soon as he returned from his travels with Charlie, who had already gone into hiding, under a name and in a place that no one, not even us, would know about. 

We’d both had several identities set up, for traveling together and apart. Diamonds that couldn’t be traced in safe houses he’d arranged for as well as on me, bitcoin we both would access. 

He’d transferred ownership of his home in Chicago to Ruby with instructions to sell it and keep the proceeds, and dissolved the Institute; the paperwork would be filed within 24 hours of our leaving. 

The Strand holdings had gone from inaccessible to liquid in less than 12 hours, courtesy of shell corporations and bank accounts across the globe.

Geoff and MK had hired a team to secure his home in Seattle, boarding up windows, setting up a new security system, and moving everything of personal value to the basement safe room. 

I’d left instructions for my apartment and personal effects to be disposed of as my parents saw fit right after they are informed of my apparent death in a car accident. MK had already arranged for coroner’s reports to be uploaded. 

We’d had backpacks ready to go, with practical clothing (thank you Bombas for the all those samples), digitized copies of all relevant books in the Strand collection, untraceable tablets for research. I’d be picking up a laptop upon my arrival in, well, that’s not important. 

Like I said, this wasn’t a fairy tale. Instead, by the time the episode would air, we’d be long gone, making our way separately to the first of our many safehouses. Not even Nic and Terry would know the extent of our real plan. 

 

New haircuts.

Dye jobs

Contacts for us both, colored for me and vision correcting for him. 

Cruise ships for me. Drive over the border and a charter flight for Strand. 

And if we’re very lucky, we’ll meet up where we are supposed to, on time, and our hunt will begin.


End file.
